1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to glassy alloys, and, in particular, to filaments of zirconium-copper glassy alloys containing transition metal elements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Material having high electrical resistivity (over 200 .mu..OMEGA.-cm) and negative or zero temperature coefficients of resistivity are required for precision resistors, resistance thermometers and the like. High resistivity materials permit fabrication of smaller resistors. Negative temperature coefficients of resistivity provide larger resistance vaues at lower temperatures, thus increasing the sensitivity of low temperature resistance thermometers. Zero temperature coefficients of resistivity provide stability of resistance with temperature, which is required for useful precision resistors. Commonly available alloys such as Constantan (49 .mu..OMEGA.-cm) and Nichrome (100 .mu..OMEGA.-cm) are examples of materials generally employed in these applications.
A number of splat-quenched foils of binary alloys of zirconium and titanium with transition metal elements such as nickel, copper, cobalt and iron have been disclosed elsewhere; see, e.g. Vol. 4, Metallurgical Transactions, pp. 1785-1790 (1973) (binary Zr-Ni alloys); Izvestia Akadameya Nauk SSSR, Metals, pp. 173-178 (1973) (binary Ti or Zr alloys with Fe, Ni or Cu); and Vol. 2, Scripta Metallurgica, pages 357-359 (1968) (binary Zr-Ni, Zr-Cu, Zr-Co and Ti-Cu alloys).
A number of splat-quenched foils of ternary alloys of zirconium, copper and iron have been disclosed as well; see, e.g. Rapidly Quenched Metals, N. J. Grant and B. C. Giessen, Eds., pp. 351-358, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1976) and Vol. 14, Physical Review B, pp. 2160-2170 (1976).
While splat-quenched foils are useful for measurement of properties thereon, they are totally unsuited for use in commercial applications, which typically require homogeneous, ductile materials. Splats, as is well-known, tend to be inhomogeneous, of non-uniform thickness, composition and width and of varying degree of glassiness across the splat.